Summer is coming and we all need to think about our plan for that hot day, or run of hot days, when our homes are too hot for us to be comfortable.
If you are lucky enough to own your home, you have many options you can explore if you can afford them. These include properly insulating your home to keep heat out in summer and heat in during winter and installing fans and reverse cycle air conditioning that will help during both extremes. But if the power fails or it becomes very hot and the air conditioner’s heat transfer slows down, then even the homeowner might need to think about fallback options.
Those who are renting have fewer options if their landlord is not concerned about their tenant’s thermal comfort. Victoria has introduced some changes to address tenant thermal comfort and NSW may follow suit. NSW has finished consulting on proposed Minimum Energy Rental Standards (MEERS) but legislation has not yet emerged like in Victoria. Only minimum habitability standards exist in NSW, including locks, structural soundness and plumbing.
If you rent a hot house, options such as portable air conditioners are costly and often inefficient. The City of Sydney has a “What to do in hot weather” guide and has a report on how summer heat differs across its suburbs’ microclimates. NSW Health have “Plan ahead to beat the heat” resources and Red Cross has an “Extreme Heat” page. On hot days the City Council also operates mobile cooling hubs primarily for homeless people.
Tenants in older, poorly insulated public housing are especially at risk. These buildings do not currently have an entitlement to air conditioning unless the tenant has medical grounds in accordance with the Home Modifications (Disability) Policy. In some hotter parts of NSW, Homes NSW has a policy of retrofitting air conditioning.
Academics presenting to the REDWatch September meeting on thermal comfort in social housing suggested that, in the absence of in-home air-conditioning, community rooms should be air-conditioned and open during hot days so that tenants do not have to travel in the heat to air-conditioned places like libraries, community centres and shopping centres to get relief from the heat.
The new social housing above Waterloo Metro relies on passive cooling. It does not have air-conditioning nor was it requested of the developer for Waterloo South.
At the September REDWatch, Homes NSW advised that the project would apply for funding to include air-conditioning in Waterloo South in line with the Homes NSW heating and cooling policy that “Homes NSW will provide energy efficient reverse cycle air conditioning units and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to all new properties in all … climate zones, where possible.”
Tenants welcomed the announcement, but it is still dependent on Homes NSW making available the funding to do it. Tenants have written to Minister Rose Jackson and CEO Rebecca Pinkstone requesting commitment to the funding with the support of organisations like Counterpoint and Shelter NSW. Council is also supporting the request with both a letter from Clover Moore and Council unanimously accepting a motion in support of air-conditioning in Waterloo South.
Hopefully, Homes NSW will ensure all future social housing has excellent thermal properties, including air conditioning, and the NSW government will soon introduce MEERS legislation to ensure the thermal comfort of all renters.
Geoff Turnbull is the Spokesperson for REDWatch
